“Appreciate what you have before it becomes what you had.”
I think about that quote when looking ahead to the Hopewell Vikings 2026 High School football season.
Last season was the start of what should be a very successful run for this team as they finished the season 7-5 and qualified for the WPIAL playoffs for the first time since 2012.
While some may look at that as no huge accomplishment, consider that the previous 13 seasons, the Hopewell HS football program had a combined record of 26-86.
Needless to say, that was a ton of losing and not many enjoyable Friday nights at Tony Dorsett Stadium.
For the first time in many, many years, there’s an anticipation to the start of football season and for good reason.
Head coach Matt Mottes and his coaches will be returning a large group of talented players that have been together the last few years and are determined to win a championship.
Is that possible? Time will tell but when you have the number of skilled position players that this team will return anything is possible.
That is certainly the case when you have a talent such as James Armstrong running your offense. In his first two seasons, the future Penn State quarterback has combined for 5,500 total yards, 62 touchdowns and 9 interceptions.
Bottom line is that Armstrong will go down as one of the best athletes to every player in the WPIAL, let alone Hopewell High School.
His accomplishments in football, basketball and baseball have helped put Hopewell High School on the map nationally and that’s something to be appreciated.
As I mentioned earlier, appreciate what’s going on and don’t take it for granted.
Armstrong won’t be doing it alone as he’s surrounded by a strong core of players that also have the potential to play football beyond high school. Nasir Wade, Brody Rock, Avery Bokor, Aris Haniotes, Tre Cameron, Keith Young will be returning and poised to have breakout seasons, but players such as Joey Barkovich, Landon Matthews and Richie Johns are names to watch as well.
I could list more names and will be doing so as the Vikings are preparing to open up camp. There’s plenty of time to do that as we move on into the summer, but the point is that this is the best roster of talent Hopewell will be fielding in many, many years.
Having talented players is not uncommon however, being able to have one of the top quarterback talents in the country along with 5 or 6 other players with D-1 talent isn’t something that happens often.
Because of that, the Hopewell Vikings have a chance to be very special for the next two seasons and that’s something we should appreciate and take pride in.
Things will officially get underway on August 28th when Hopewell will host Avonworth, the defending WPIAL and PIAA champions.
